


Wire Heartstrings

by grassangel



Category: Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
Genre: Character Death, Drabble Sequence, Gen, Siblings, Triptych, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-22
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2017-12-06 02:40:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/730632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grassangel/pseuds/grassangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The worst happens, and Gretel moves on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. razor sharp

It's fucking stupid how Hansel dies.

They'd set up razorwire across the stream nearest the witch's house, the forest too dense for a witch to fly through or for them to chase. It's not a tall spread, three feet instead of six, but it would be enough to split a witch in half or take off her head.  
Hansel's usually smart enough to remember not to grab a witch's broom when they've done that and, on the occassions he isn't, he ends up in a tree before reaching the wire.

Hansel forgets. And there are no trees to catch him.


	2. bled out

Gretel doesn't begin to cry until after she has collected their payment, until after she's witnessed the stream running red with the consequence of her brother's negligence. Edward allows her tears to soak into his shoulder as they make their way deeper into the forest, Hansel's body shrouded safely on the cart.  
They, and her tears, don't stop until sunset threatens through the trees.

Edward is as gentle with Hansel's body as he is with Gretel, large hands softly laying him down on carefully stacked wood.  
It turns out that burning is the best way to dispose of white witches too.

By the flickering light of Hansel's pyre, smoke billowing and bringing tears to her eyes, Gretel opens her mother's grimoire and starts to read.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was a long time coming. I decided to say stuff it and not try to cut it down by another 25 words, or waffle on for another 75.


	3. cold and buried

Before, folk told tales of two siblings who were _hexenfinder_ , brother and sister who were immune to witches' spells.  
Similarly, witches whispered among themselves about the lost children of the grand white witch Adrianna, mourning the powers their flesh and bone held.

After Augsburg, the tales change and rumours spread that the famed witch hunters are themselves witches. In certain circles it slips that Adrianna's children have been found, that they bite and hunt and cannot be tempted to the dark.

Then those tales stop.

And the tale of Gretel, grand white witch, starts with the death of her brother.


End file.
